Catcher in the Rye

I thought so too. It really is the crux of the entire persona of Paul and how he is able to fool and at the same time, inspire the parents of the children he allegedly knows. Also the anger and immaturity described as Holden Caulfield is portrayed by their own children.

Agreed, this particular scene is one of my all time favorites, brilliantly executed by Will Smith. My opinion of Will Smith certainly changed at that very moment.

I know a few folks that weren't fans of Smith until I showed them this, which basically left them speechless.






Demetria :)

"There's nothing tastier than food for thought."

one of the best in film history probably in itself. I was speechless after I saw that one part. the film itself was considerbley well made...but my god...the film is minute compared to that one scene. I was so very moved by that speech and how well it was delivered

It's a great speech because it was written by a (very fine) playwright, not a screenwriter. It therefore has the quality of oratory, rather than mere speech. One of the things I love about it is that Paul's later admission that he stole it from a graduation speech justifies its sounding like oratory.

Oratory is more than a collection of words. It has pitch, timbre, rhythm, contrasting themes, consonance, dissonance, repetition -- these are the qualities of music -- as well as poetic devices like onomatopoeia, alliteration, consonance (the other kind), assonance and synecdoche. What's best about the Catcher in the Rye speech, to me, is that it illuminates all the characters in the room while simultaneously making a profound statement about the disaffected in society -- which is a larger theme of the play/film. In other words, it works subtly but brilliantly within and without the scene simultaneously. The only other film that leaps to mind as being comparably multi-textured is The Lion in Winter (also by a brilliant playwright), but it's less given to lengthy speeches, favoring instead the witheringly terse.